I received a text from Jeremy this evening, which read, "North Korea just successfully tested a nuclear bomb. The game just changed."

Indeed it did. Just hours ago, the world learned that North Korea, an Axis of Evil delegate, performed its first nuclear weapons test equivalent to 550 tons of TNT. The U.S. dropped the equivalent of 12,500 tons of TNT on Hiroshima, for context. According to the AP, the communist country hailed the event as a "great step forward" for its people.

"We expect the U.N. Security Council to take immediate actions to respond to this unprovoked act," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. "The United States is closely monitoring the situation and reaffirms its commitment to protect and defend our allies in the region." (Read: We're backing up Japan and South Korea.)

Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, calls the test "unpardonable," and South Korean presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-young said, "Our government will sternly react under the principle that it cannot tolerate the North's possession of nuclear weapons."

South and North Korea, which fought the 1950-53 Korean War, are divided by the world's most heavily armed border. Gramps even took a turn at border patrol, I believe. North Korea pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003 after U.S. officials accused it of a secret nuclear program, according to the AP. North Korea has since dismissed U.N. sanctions requesting disarmament. North Korea is the eighth country in the world confirmed to have atomic weapons, joining the ranks of the United States, Russia, France, China, Britain, India, and Pakistan. Yikes.